Ground products such as ground beef, ground lamb, ground pork etc. are sometimes mixed where the mix must fulfill pre-determined target criterion, such as product 1/product 2 weight ratio target and lean/fat target ratio. As an example, one type of mix can be that a customer orders a mix where 60% of the total weight is ground beef and 40% of the total weight is ground pork and where additionally the lean/fat ratio of the mix is 12%.
An important and relative complex factor in grinding meat is keeping the temperature down on the meat. A common way of doing so is to use CO2 or another gas to cool down the meat. The problem with this method is however that this stresses the surface of the product at the cost of the quality.
Another way of keeping the temperature down in ground meat is to use frozen trim, which is typically cheaper than fresh trim. An example of such mix is where a customer orders a ground beef mix where certain percentage of the mix is frozen trim, e.g. 40%, and a certain percentage fresh trim, e.g. 60%, with a certain target lean/fat ratio. The most common way to produce such a mix is to manually mix fresh and frozen trim based on visual lean (VL) that has been determined by an operator prior in the process. This mix is then pre-grinded and a portion is made, e.g. 1000 kg portion. After that, one or more samples are taken from the pre-grind portion to determine the accurate lean/fat ratio level, sometimes referred to as a chemical lean (CL) level. In case of a non-match between the CL and VL levels, the operator must adjust the mix manually so as to reach the desired CL level.
The problem with this process is that the VL level can sometimes be very inaccurate and therefore it may take some time until the CL level of the mix is within the lean/fat ratio range required by the customer. This can therefore obviously be a very time consuming process which is reflected in less throughput of the process. Moreover, if the customer additionally requires a weight target, e.g. 1000 kg of the mix, it may be very difficult to reach such a target value and simultaneously the target CL level.
The inventor of the present invention has appreciated that there is thus a need for a more advanced system of producing a mix of such two or more food products and has in consequence devised the present invention.